


this current between us (it's flowing, this feeling)

by manbun_zukka



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Druk the Fire Noodle Strikes Again, Druk the fire noodle, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Light Angst, Like the lightest, M/M, Relationship Reveal, Secret Relationship, Sokka and Zuko being sickeningly in love for fourteen pages, i blame jo, i wish there was more suki in this but there isn't :(, some swear words but not too many, the gaang being buds, toph knew from the start okay?, toph's love for nicknames also strikes again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29768670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manbun_zukka/pseuds/manbun_zukka
Summary: “Hey!” Sokka yelps, breaking away from Aang so that he can untangle the dragon from his hair. “Your son is trying to give me a haircut,” he says to Zuko, smirking when Zuko can’t respond with his usual 'he’s your son too, Sokka'.“Give him here,” Zuko mumbles instead, holding out his hand. Sokka passes Druk off easily, raising an eyebrow when he realises that their friends are staring at them in awe. (Except for Toph, of course, who looks supremely uninterested in the whole ordeal.)“He likes you?” Aang asks incredulously, his eyes just about popping out of his head. “That’s so unfair! I helped the Sun Warriors give him to Zuko, and he doesn’t like me!”“It’s just ‘cause I’m here more than you are,” Sokka says, walking towards Toph and obligingly accepting his shoulder punch. “Maybe you shouldn’t spend so much time off saving the world if you want Druk to like you better.”---Or, during a visit to the Fire Nation, Aang realises that Druk likes Sokka more than him. He sets out to remedy this, and maybe-possibly-accidentally uncovers a few secrets along the way (but not without Toph's help, of course).
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Sokka & Zuko & Druk (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 443





	this current between us (it's flowing, this feeling)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lesmiserablol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesmiserablol/gifts).



> okiedokie yall i wrote this in three days after reading a post on tumblr, so forgive me if it's a bit all over the place. if you want someone to blame for this garbage, i beg of you to look towards jo (@lesmiserablol) who's post spawned this whole thing. i hope yall like whatever this turned out to be! i honestly love it, even though it's mostly garbage. (seriously, i mean who's pov is this? nobody knows.)
> 
> xx,  
> CJ

“They’re gonna figure it out,” Zuko mumbles under his breath. Sokka elbows him in the side, and he squawks, indignant. 

“No they won’t!” Sokka insists over the sounds of Zuko’s protests. “We’re great at stealth. We’ve been doing it for a year, another week won’t hurt that much.”

Zuko, who’s still rubbing his side, gives Sokka a Look. “Sokka, the entire palace staff found out within a week.  _ And,  _ somehow Ambassador Chan knows.”

“I can’t help it!” Sokka exclaims. “You know how much I love talking about you, and Laia from the laundry room knows exactly what to say to get me to tell her secrets! That girl is gonna take over the world one day, I swear.”

Zuko shakes his head fondly, and he looks like he’s about to say something else but pauses at the sound of a knock on the door. He and Sokka scramble to get apart, and as soon as they’re sitting a respectable distance apart on the couch Zuko shouts over his shoulder, “Come in!”   
  


The door opens, and Suki steps through, Druk perched on her shoulder. The dragon nuzzles her makeup-covered chin once with his snout, and then jumps from her shoulder and flies shakily across the room, landing in Zuko’s lap. 

“Appa just landed,” Suki says. Sokka’s face lights up with a grin, and Zuko, despite his nerves, can’t help but smile as well. Druk climbs up his arm and settles atop his shoulders, huffing out little puffs of smoke. “It’s weird that he’s so happy around you two,” Suki notes as the three of them start walking towards the central courtyard. “He’s always really snappy at me.”

Sokka shrugs. “He’s a funky dragon,” he says. “Plus, I’m probably the Ambassador that Zuko’s around the most, and Druk is usually with Zuko, so I was there a lot when he was a baby. He imprinted a lot on Zuko, and a little on me.”

Suki nods, and they continue on their way. The rest of the walk to the courtyard is filled with the familiar noise of the palace, staff members giggling about something, a council meeting happening down the hall, turtleducks and robin-pigeons chirping in the gardens. Druk takes a leap from Zuko’s shoulders to Sokka’s, curling warmly around his neck. It’s taken Sokka a while to get used to the feeling of a scaly, fire breathing dragon hanging out around his face, but he’s right about the imprinting thing- Sokka and Zuko got together on Zuko’s twenty first birthday, with the help of a good amount of celebratory sake, and Druk was a birthday present from the Sun Warriors. Sokka’s been just as involved in raising Druk as Zuko is, and that helps to keep him secure in the position of Druk’s-second-favorite-human. 

(It’s a pretty sweet gig, if Sokka’s being honest.)

As they turn the corner into the courtyard, Sokka is accosted by an armful of younger sister. He catches Katara with a chuckle, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing. The impact of the hug nearly knocks Druk off his shoulder, and the dragon is quick to leap back towards Zuko, clinging to his hair. 

“Zuko!” Aang exclaims, yanking the Firelord into a hug. Suki and Toph exchange shoulder punches, and then Katara and Aang exchange hug victims, and Druk squawks again. He flaps listlessly in the air for a bit, and eventually lands atop Sokka’s head, digging his claws into his wolftail. 

“Hey!” Sokka yelps, breaking away from Aang so that he can untangle the dragon from his hair. “Your son is trying to give me a haircut,” he says to Zuko, smirking when Zuko can’t respond with his usual  _ he’s your son too, Sokka.  _

“Give him here,” Zuko mumbles instead, holding out his hand. Sokka passes Druk off easily, raising an eyebrow when he realises that their friends are staring at them in awe. (Except for Toph, of course, who looks supremely uninterested in the whole ordeal.)

“He  _ likes  _ you?” Aang asks incredulously, his eyes just about popping out of his head. “That’s so unfair! I helped the Sun Warriors give him to Zuko, and he doesn’t like me!”

(Aang will look back on this moment and insist that he wasn’t whining. Nobody will believe him.)

“It’s just ‘cause I’m here more than you are,” Sokka says, walking towards Toph and obligingly accepting his shoulder punch. “Maybe you shouldn’t spend so much time off saving the world if you want Druk to like you better.”

This leads Aang into a tirade of reasons why he can’t just  _ leave my Avatar duties, Sokka, that’s not how it works,  _ that lasts for the entire walk from the courtyard to Zuko’s study. By the time Aang stops for air, even Druk is giving Sokka a dirty look. As they settle in the study, collapsing down onto squishy couches and rugs, Zuko asks a servant to clear his schedule and bring a pot of tea to the room. There’s a  _ lot  _ of catching up to do.

~~~

By the end of the night, Suki has wiped off her makeup, Aang has busted out the fruit pies, Toph has picked her toes twice, and Druk has fallen asleep in Sokka’s lap. They’re all in various states of sleepiness; Katara and Aang are curled up in an armchair meant for one, Toph is laying on the ground with a throw pillow under her head, Suki is sitting in Zuko’s cushy desk chair, her feet propped up on a stack of paperwork, and Sokka and Zuko are both sitting on the Good Couch, a Carefully Platonic™ distance between them. Before he fell asleep, Druk kept lap hopping between them, trying to find the cushiest thigh.

“I,” Aang starts suddenly, his voice slightly slurred by his tiredness, “have a mission.”

“Oh, do you now?” Suki snorts, leaning further back in her (Zuko’s) chair. 

“Yes,” Aang says, in that way of his that’s stupidly serious. “My mission, is that this week-” he interrupts himself with a yawn, “-I will get Druk to like me.” Sokka barks out a chuckle, and Aang turns towards him, grey eyes set. “What? Do you not think I can do it?”

“No, no, I have complete and total faith in you, buddy,” Sokka wheezes out through chuckles. “Definitely.”

Zuko, who actually looks fairly interested in Aang’s endeavor, pipes up, “There might be some books in the library about raising dragons. If you have a second of free time you should ask Rei about it, she’s the head librarian. I swear, that woman knows everything.”

Aang nods excitedly, although his movements are slower than usual because of how tired he is. He opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn, and Toph scoffs from her place on the floor. 

“Twinkle Toes is worn out,” she says, “and the rest of us are too. We can hear more about the fire noodles tomorrow, for now we need to go to bed. Sparky, show me where my bedroom is.”

“Toph’s right,” Zuko sighs, stretching his arms above his head. Then, “Did you say fire noodles?”

“Well, yeah,” Toph says, with the air of someone who’s talking to a child, “y’know, fire noodles. Druk the fire noodle, Ran and Shaw the fire noodles. All that good shit.”

Zuko, who looks like his life just flashed before his eyes, sighs again. “...I’m not even going to interact with that until I’ve gotten a full night’s sleep,” he says, scrubbing a hand across his face. “Sokka, do you-” Zuko cuts himself off, going red in the face. Sokka goes red as well.

_ Do you want to sleep in my room or yours?  _ It’s a question that one of them asks every night, because the answer changes all the time. Sometimes, Zuko wants to get away from the reds and golds of his own bedroom, escape to the blues and whites of Sokka’s, and other times Sokka’s room makes him too homesick, and he wants to be wrapped up in the warm colors of his boyfriend’s nation.  _ Do you want to sleep in my room or yours?  _ is a question that, had they asked it in front of their friends, would’ve revealed their entire, complicated knot of secrets.

“Do you want Druk tonight?” Zuko recovers after a moment, hopeful that no one noticed his brief slip-up. “I mean, he’s so comfortable, I figured-”

“Yeah,” Sokka interrupts him, “yeah, I’ll take him.”  _ My room tonight,  _ is what he hopes it communicates. Zuko nods, confirming that his message went through.

A few minutes later, they all head off in different directions, stumbling tiredly through the halls. Zuko leads Toph to her guest room, right across the hall from his own bedroom, and Katara and Aang make their way to their usual bedroom, the small one that sits next to Sokka’s Ambassador’s quarters. They all bid each other goodnight in the hallway, and Zuko ducks into his own bedroom to gather up a candlestick and his notebook. Then, he tiptoes down the hallway, towards Sokka’s room, and when he reaches the doorway he sends a furtive look at Kira, the guard who shadows him most nights. She just raises an impartial eyebrow, and takes her place at the door.

(Zuko has  _ got  _ to give her a raise.)

He finds Sokka half asleep already, curled up in bed with Druk asleep on his pillow. Zuko changes into pajamas and takes down his hair, then slides under the blankets and tucks himself up against Sokka’s side. Even in sleep, Sokka throws an arm around Zuko’s waist and pulls him closer, nuzzling into the loose hair at the nape of his neck. Careful not to crush Druk between them, Zuko moves his head atop Sokka’s pillow and snuggles in closer.

“I love you,” he whispers, even though Sokka is asleep. Druk’s forked tongue pokes out at Zuko’s ear, and he huffs at the dragon, who is apparently less asleep than he thought. “I love you too, Druk.”

~~~

(The next morning, if Toph notices that neither Zuko or his guard are across the hall from her, she doesn’t say anything about it.)

~~~

That evening, Aang is late for dinner.

Katara tells the group that he got caught up with something and told her to tell them that they could eat, so they do, and they’re about halfway through the meal of kymodo-chicken and bok choy when the Avatar bursts through the doorway of the private dining room, his arms full of a teetering pile of scrolls.

“I checked out everything that the library had on dragon rearing!” he exclaims, setting the scrolls down on the table. “If I read all of these tonight, Druk and I will be best friends by this time tomorrow!”

The dragon in question sneezes out a little fireball from his place atop Zuko’s shoulder, the flame singing a bit of hair as it goes. Zuko is quick to pat it out, and then he looks back up at Aang, grinning. “I invite you to try.”

~~~

“This is ridiculous!” Aang bemoans later that night, holed up in his guest room with Toph and Katara. “I’ve already read two whole scrolls, and I can’t find anything that’s gonna help me make Druk like me more!”

“Maybe you should ask Sokka what Druk likes most about him,” Katara muses. “Then, you can do those things and he’ll like you too.”

“I don’t know if you’ll want to do  _ everything  _ that Sokka does to get Druk to like him,” Toph mutters from the corner. “I mean, you certainly aren’t as  _ close  _ with Sparky as he is.”

“What do you mean by that!?” Aang exclaims. “I’m Zuko’s best friend, he told me so himself! There’s no  _ way  _ he’s closer with Sokka than he is with me! He tells me  _ everything!” _

“I never said you weren’t Zuko’s best friend,” Toph clarifies. “I just said that maybe he’s closer with Sokka than he is with you.”

“What- but- that makes no sense!” 

“You’ll get it one day, Twinkle Toes,” Toph sighs. 

“This is ridiculous,” Aang mutters, flopping dramatically onto the bed. “I’ll never get Druk to like me.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Katara says, “I’m sure we’ll find a way. Maybe you should spend more time around Druk. Sokka did say that he’d been around Druk more than you have, and that could be why he likes him more. You just have to get him to be comfortable around you, and then he’ll like you just as much as he likes Sokka.”

“Hey, Twinkle Toes, have you looked for any scrolls about dragons in the wild?” Toph asks suddenly. “Like, how dragons are raised by other dragons, shit like that.”

“No,” Aang says, “I’ve only looked at writings about human’s raising domesticated dragons. Druk is domesticated, so I figured that he’d be different from dragons in the wild.”

“Well, yeah,” Toph muses, “but he’s still a dragon. I’m sure there are wild-dragon tendencies that travel to domesticated dragons.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Aang sighs. Then, his face splits into a wide grin and he sits up straight, bounding across the room to where Katara is sitting in an armchair. “I bet Rei is still awake, she can probably tell me where the scrolls about dragons are. C’mon, the library is probably still open!”

“Aang,” Katara huffs, “It’s the middle of the night. We should all be going to bed. Toph, you too.”

Aang wilts, but he gives in. “Fine,” he mutters. “I guess you’re right. But after I meditate tomorrow, you  _ have  _ to go to the library with me. Okay?”

“Okay,” Katara chuckles. “I’ll go, I promise. Toph, do you want me to walk you back to your room?”

“Sure,” Toph yawns. She pulls herself off of where she’s splayed out on the ground, extending an arm out towards Katara, who obligingly links their elbows together. “Goodnight, Twinkle Toes. Don’t try to get me up for your early morning library trip tomorrow and maybe I’ll help you befriend the fire noodle.”

“Goodnight, Toph,” Aang chuckles, already heading towards the bathroom. 

Katara and Toph walk through the palace in companionable silence, and when they reach the doorway of Toph’s bedroom, she pauses. Her feet twist and point, and they end up facing towards Zuko’s bedroom door. Katara follows her gaze with a quirked eyebrow, making a confused noise when all that she sees is Kira, Zuko’s usual guard. Kira nods at her, and Katara nods back. For her part, Toph’s mouth spreads into a sly grin. 

“Get it, Sparky,” she says under her breath. Then, she turns briskly away from the door, punches Katara in the shoulder, and says, “Goodnight, Sweetness. I’ll see you in the morning, etcetera, etcetera.”

“Goodnight?” Katara replies. Toph grins at her once more, then opens the door to her bedroom and slips through, leaving Katara alone in the hallway. “What the hell just happened?” she asks, seemingly to no one.

“You’ll figure it out soon,” Kira smirks from across the hallway. “If you’re really related to your brother, then you’ve certainly got some smarts up in there. Pay attention to the dragon scrolls, Master Katara. They’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

Katara goes to sleep that night more confused than she’s ever been, and it’s that confusion that keeps her from remembering to go to Sokka’s room and say goodnight.

~~~

When Sokka and Zuko arrive at the dining hall the next morning, the only person in there is Toph. Druk, who’s taken a liking to her over the past couple of days, flies from Sokka’s shoulder to the seat next to Toph, flapping his wings excitedly.

“I think he wants you to sit next to me, Snoozles,” Toph says. “You can’t say no to the fire noodle, now can you?”

Sokka scoffs and shakes his head, but sits down next to Toph nonetheless. Zuko sits across from him, and takes the teapot into his hands, warming up the water that has cooled. “I wish you’d stop calling him a fire noodle,” he says to Toph, squinting down at the teapot as it heats up. “He’s-”

“The last remaining member of an ancient species, I get it,” Toph says for him. “But, everybody gets a nickname. You know we’re friends when you get a nickname.”

“Toph, you do remember that you gave Aang his nickname about thirty seconds after meeting him in an underground earthbending tournament, right?” 

“Hush, Snoozles,” Toph sighs. “As I was saying, you know that we’re friends when you get a nickname. And now the fire-gang is complete. Sparky, Snoozles, and fire noodle. Bam. Happy family.”

“If Druk gets a nickname, then why don’t Appa and Momo?” Sokka asks, drowning out Zuko’s protests of  _ we’re not a family, Toph!  _

“Appa and Momo  _ are  _ their nicknames, you absolute dunderhead,” Toph snarks. “Their real names are Lord Appa and Princess Momo.”

“Momo’s a dude, Toph.”

“I know.”

Before Sokka can protest this, the doors to the dining room creak open, and Aang and Katara step through, both of them carrying armfuls of scrolls. Zuko gives into the urge to let his forehead drop onto the table, and Druk flies over to sit on his collarbones, making it so that he can’t sit up. 

“Good morning to you too, hotman!” Aang says cheerfully, setting his scrolls down onto the table. The teapot in Zuko’s hands boils, and steam pours from the spout.

“...I’d give that a second to cool down, if I were you,” Sokka huffs after a moment. Aang giggles a bit as he and Katara sit down, next to Zuko and Druk. “What are those books on, Aang?”

“Dragons in the wild!” Aang exclaims. “Toph said that we should look at how dragons are raised by other dragons so that we can figure out why Druk likes you so much.”

Sokka quirks an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

This leads Aang into a rant about the intricacies of dragon rearing that lasts for the rest of breakfast, just as Sokka expected. He eventually coaxes Druk off of Zuko’s shoulders, and as he sips from his cup of no-longer-scalding jasmine tea, the dragon occasionally leans down over his shoulder and sticks his forked tongue into Sokka’s cup, his eyes scrunching up with joy at the sweet taste. Zuko watches them from across the table, a stupidly lovestruck look on his face, and Sokka knocks their feet together under the table.

Toph smirks.

~~~

“This is  _ useless.” _

“No, it’s not,” Katara insists. “You said it yourself, there’s gotta be something in one of these scrolls. Why don’t we go over what we’ve already read?”

“You two are so stupid,” Toph sighs. Katara and Aang both snap their gazes over to where she’s lounging on the ground underneath a willow tree, her hands pillowed under her head. 

“Oh, c’mon Toph,” Katara snaps, “it’s not like you’ve been helping us! If you’re so smart, why don’t you tell us what we missed?”

“If you really want me to,” Toph drawls. Her face screws up for a moment, as if she’s trying to remember something, and then she says, “Twinkletoes, get out ‘Dragons in the Wild’ by Xui Lian.”

“You got it,” Aang says, leaning over to dig through the pile of scrolls that have amassed at his side. They’ve been sitting in the garden since lunch, checking over every last scroll just in case they missed anything. It’s been five days since they arrived in the Fire Nation, and they’ve got two days left until they have to leave, and Aang has still not found anything that’ll help him befriend Druk. Sokka and Zuko refuse to give him any hints, and Rei the librarian has actually run out of scrolls about dragons. 

Aang locates the correct scroll with a triumphant noise and says to Toph, “I’ve got the scroll, now what?”

“Go seventeen paragraphs in,” Toph tells him, “the fourth sentence of that paragraph. Read from there to the end of it, and see if you figure it out.”

“Okay!” Aang says brightly, unraveling the scroll and quickly finding the right paragraph. He counts the periods with his finger and reads out loud from the fourth one. “Depending on whether or not a dragon’s mother is mated to it’s father, the dragon may bond with whatever other dragon it’s mother is closest with. If a dragon’s mother has a mate who is not the dragon’s father, the dragon may treat it’s mother’s mate as a father figure.” Aang looks up from the scroll and then towards Katara, his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Toph,” he says, “I’m kinda confused. We’ve gone over all of ‘Dragons in the Wild’ already. We’ve gone through it twice, actually.”

“I know,” Toph says, “I was there. You’re missing the point, though. In layman’s terms, what does the passage say?”

“Uh,” Aang glances down at the paper, scanning briefly over the words. “It basically says that if a dragon’s parents aren’t mated, then whoever the dragon’s mother is mated with will be sort of a father figure in it’s life?” he offers, looking towards Katara for confirmation.

“That sounds right to me,” Katara says. “Toph? Is Aang right?”

“Right in one, Twinkle Toes,” Toph sighs. 

“So?” Aang prompts. “What does it  _ mean,  _ Toph? Why is this passage important?”

Toph rolls her eyes- a habit she picked up from Zuko, somehow- and then sighs dramatically. “For someone who’s supposed to be the most powerful person in the world, you can be pretty dim sometimes,” she mutters. “Okay, think about it. Who is the person that acts as Druk’s mother?”

“Uh, I dunno,” Aang says. Katara leans over and whispers the answer in his ear, and he grins at her. “Zuko! It’s Zuko.”

“Sugar Queen, stop giving him the answers,” Toph says, “but yes, you’re right. It’s Zuko. Now, who is the person that Druk likes second best compared to Zuko?”

“It’s Sokka, right?”

“Correct again, Twinkle Toes,” Toph says. “Now, what does the book say?”

“That a dragon will use their mother’s mate as a substitute for their father,” Aang recites, his face scrunching up in concentration. “That’s right, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Toph sighs. “Now, let’s put two and two together. If Zuko is Druk’s adoptive mom, and Sokka is the person that he likes the second best, then in dragon rearing terms it makes sense for Sokka to be…?”

“Zuko’s mate,” Aang says after a moment, “but that makes no sense. A mate is like a spouse, or, or a boyfriend or girlfriend. Sokka and Zuko aren’t… Oh, shit.”

“You two are crazy,” Katara huffs, “there’s no  _ way  _ that Sokka and Zuko are dating. That- that would be like if Mai and Ty Lee were dating! It makes no sense!”

“...Mai and Ty Lee  _ are  _ dating, Katara,” Aang says gently. “They’ve been together for, like, four years now, since the end of the war.”

“Oh, Tui’s left tit, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nobody’s kidding you, Sugar Queen,” Toph insists. “Sparky and Snoozles have been together since Druk was still an egg, I’m blind and even I can see it!”

“I,” Katara says, her voice frighteningly low, “am going to  _ kill  _ them for not telling me.”

~~~

Sokka and Zuko are holed up in Zuko’s study, pouring over notes on  _ aqueducts,  _ of all things, when the door is blown open. Both of their heads snap up, and Zuko’s hands fill with fire on instinct. Druk moves from Zuko’s shoulder to Sokka’s, snarling at the doorway. 

“You  _ assholes!”  _ Katara yells, bounding through the door. Zuko drops his fire and Sokka stops reaching for his boomerang, but both of them still look fearful. (Sokka and Zuko have both learned that sometimes Katara is worth being afraid of more than some assassins.)

Behind Katara, Aang and Toph are standing on opposite sides of the doorway. Aang looks slightly bewildered, like if he had hair it would be sticking up in all directions after being pulled. Toph, for her part, just looks smug.

“Um,” Sokka starts, his voice high. He clears his throat, then continues, “Could you maybe fill me in on what we did?”

“You didn’t tell us!” Katara exclaims. Sokka’s heart drops to his stomach. “You didn’t tell  _ me,”  _ she goes on, her tone shifting from angry to hurt. “Sokka… why would you keep it a secret?”

Sokka knows what’s happening. He knows that this is his decision from months ago coming back to bite him in the ass. But Zuko- Zuko just looks confused, like he has no idea what’s going on. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, “I just- what’s happening?” He turns towards Sokka, golden eyes wide, and Druk flies back onto his shoulder, nuzzling at his cheek. “Could somebody tell me what’s going on?”

Sokka, despite the pit of terror in his stomach, smiles. “Tui and La, how did you end up as Firelord if you can’t even read a room?” he teases. 

Zuko glares at him, and says, “Honestly, I don’t know. I blame Uncle.”

That helps to break the tension in the room. Sokka barks out a laugh, Aang chuckles a bit, and even Katara giggles. Toph’s smirk just slides wider. “Alright,” she says, “Twinkle Toes, why don’t you tell them what we read?”

“Well,” Aang starts, “we were reading a scroll about dragons.”

Finally, Zuko’s stomach follows the trend that Sokka’s set, and falls to his feet.

By the end of Aang’s explanation, both Zuko and Sokka are red in the face. Druk is flying circles around their heads, snorting out happy little puffs of smoke, and despite the fact that she can’t see the looks on their faces Toph is taking great joy in the boys’ discomfort. Katara seems to have cooled down a little, but she’s still glaring out at the room, her hands on her hips and her waterskin uncorked. 

“What I don’t understand,” she says, “is why you two didn’t tell us. I mean, I understand why you wouldn’t want to tell  _ everybody,  _ but you could’ve trusted us.”

Zuko opens his mouth, and then closes it. He turns towards Sokka, who’s staring at his sister with wide, sad eyes, and tugs on his boyfriend’s sleeve. “I don’t know what to say,” Zuko whispers. “I don’t know how to- how do we-”

Sokka cuts him off by pulling him into his side, tucking his arm around Zuko’s waist as he goes. He presses his cheek to Zuko’s head and sighs, closing his eyes. “You don’t have to say anything,” he whispers. 

“Guys?” Aang says tentatively, drawing the two of them out of their little bubble. Sokka blinks at him, and color rushes to his cheeks. “This is really cute and all, but I think we all actually  _ do  _ want to know why you didn’t tell us.” His small smile warps into a frown, and his grey eyes turn glassy. “Did you- did you think I would tell?”

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that the Avatar is only seventeen. Sokka looks at him most of the time and sees Aang, the last airbender, the person who ended a century long war, his sister’s boyfriend, and one of his own best friends. Now, he looks at Aang and sees a kid.

“Of course we didn’t think you’d tell,” Sokka says, closing his eyes once more. He lets his head fall back onto Zuko’s, and breathes in the faint smell of smoke and jasmine that the Firelord always seems to carry with him. “It was all me, really,” he goes on, chuckling without any humor. “I just wanted him to myself, just for a little while. It- it was selfish. I knew that then, and I know it now. But, I also knew that when we told you guys, you’d react like you are now. Katara would be angry that we didn’t tell her sooner, even if it had only been an hour since we first kissed, Toph would’ve known all along, and Aang would somehow blame something on himself. And after that, even if our relationship wasn’t out there for the entire world to see,  _ our  _ entire world would be able to see it, and that’s-”

Sokka breaks off, his hand flexing where it still sits on Zuko’s hip. Zuko presses further into Sokka’s side, his body a welcome warmth against the other. “That’s scary,” Zuko finishes, staring resolutely down at the papers that are still strewn out in front of them. “It’s really, really scary. Neither of us are good at being seen, but all of you- all of you are good at seeing. Yes, even you Toph.”

For a moment, all is silent. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. Even Druk is still, curled up tightly atop Sokka’s shoulders. 

“Oh, for La’s sake,” Toph huffs, breaking the silence. “This is so stupid! I don’t understand why this has to be such a big deal! Katara, they didn’t tell you because they didn’t have to tell you. Yes, Sokka’s your brother and Zuko’s your friend, but everyone’s allowed to have secrets. You don’t just get an in to their lives because you know them. And Aang, nobody thinks you’re not trustworthy! You know more about most of your friends than you probably know about yourself. Snoozles and Sparky are so obviously in love with each other, it gives me a headache. They love each other, we all love them, what’s the big problem here?”

As it seems, nobody can argue with that.

~~~

After another half an hour or so of slightly awkward, very emotional talks, everybody seems happy. Toph is content to start mercilessly teasing Zuko and Sokka, as she should be, Katara has given Zuko an adequate shovel talk, as is her duty as a younger sister, and Aang is already trying to gossip with Sokka and Zuko and with Zuko about Sokka, both at the same time. Druk is flying little circles around the room, landing in people’s hair or on their shoulders, occasionally sneezing out little fireballs.

At some point, conversation comes to a lull. Evening is falling upon the palace, the sun is just barely starting to sink low in the sky, and dusk is leaving a pleasant pink glow on every surface as murky light shines in through the windows of Zuko’s study. Zuko and Sokka are sitting on the couch again, just like they were on the first night of Aang, Katara and Toph’s visit, but this time they’re snuggled up next to each other instead of sitting far apart. Aang and Katara have settled together in an armchair, and Toph is perched on an otoman with her bare feet flat on the floor. 

Suddenly, Druk halts his circles. He hovers in the air for a bit, wings fluttering, and then flies decisively across the room, towards Aang. Aang, whose eyes go wide, and who sits statue still as Druk approaches him. The dragon circles around Aang’s head a few times, his eyes squinted in concentration, and finally settles around the Avatar’s neck, his chin nestled comfortably in the folds of Aang’s robes. 

In this moment, Aang is like a tea kettle. His lips stretch into a wide, bright grin, and a little squeal starts emerging from his throat, quiet at first, then louder, higher in pitch, until the noise is practically painful to hear. His squeal turns into giggles, which turn into loud, outright laughter.

“I did it!” he exclaims. “You guys, I did it! Druk likes me!”

Aang’s infectious smile goes right alongside his infectious laugh, and soon enough everyone else in the room is either giggling alongside the Avatar, grinning with him, or, in Toph’s case, smirking wildly and saying nothing. Zuko smiles softly, leans further into Sokka’s chest, and says, “Yeah, I guess he does.”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hey yall! i hope you liked this, and if you did pleasepleaseplease leave kudos and a comment down below. i wanna hear what you thought! was it awful? was it wonderful? i wanna know! on another note, if you'd like to come and scream with me about atla, you can find me on tumblr @manbun-zukka! 
> 
> xx,  
> CJ


End file.
